During times of social unrest, gold is the most portable store of wealth.

To be truly independent during times of social unrest, you need to hold a portion of your wealth outside of the banking system.

Remember, paper money is just the promise of money. The pieces of paper in your wallet or purse have no value in themselves. Their value lies in the promise that you can exchange them for goods. And promises can be broken.

Your investments, including your pension, are in the hands of the banks and investment traders. Again, you are depending on the goodwill and honesty of the people who hold and manage your money. And as we have seen in recent years, it would be foolish just to assume that bankers will always take the very best care of our wealth.

When it comes to taking some of your wealth outside of the banks – which is always a good idea – there are a few options.

One popular alternative to keeping money in the bank is to use it to buy land. By that I mean raw land, not houses built on land. We know what can happen to the value of houses. Land is certainly a reliable way to store wealth, but it does have a disadvantage. It can’t be moved. If you want or need to move from one side of the country to the other, you can’t take it with you. Yes, you can sell it, but that can take time.

This is why gold always has always been such a popular store of value. It is totally portable. Put it in your car, in a briefcase, or in your pocket. You can even sew it into the lining of your coat.

Look back through history and you’ll find that at times of social disruption, people moved away from areas of unrest and took to the road with their wealth in the form of gold coins. In the military, even today, special forces soldiers who operate behind enemy lines carry a few gold coins with them.

Which brings us to another reason why gold gives you the ultimate in financial independence. It is not only portable, but also holds its value wherever you are in the world. It doesn’t matter whether you are in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Kabul, Moscow, Berlin, London or somewhere in the prairies in Canada, your gold will always hold its value.

This is what it means to be independent. When you can carry significant wealth with you in the form of gold, you are free from the constraints and chains of the financial system. At least part of your wealth will be safe, even if promises are broken and your paper money becomes worthless.

And you can keep that wealth with you, wherever you choose to travel or need to go.

About the author: DH Kenrick is a student of world economics and a committed gold enthusiast. Follow me on Google+

Like Owning Gold on Facebook